


a lonely heart calls

by reassembleme



Series: All The Small Things [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dancing, Drunk Dancing, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 10:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14851047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reassembleme/pseuds/reassembleme
Summary: Team Voltron winds down after a long day, Keith confronts some feelings.





	a lonely heart calls

The ache of the battle still echoes in their bones, in the edges of their cuts and the slow gait of their return. With great effort, Keith removes his helmet. He rolls his shoulder, slowly cataloguing all his aches, both old and new. One by one, so does the rest of the team. He’s swiping a hand across his face when he catches Lance’s eye, notices a smirk on his tired face.

 

“What?” He says, wary.

 

“Nice helmet hair, _Mullet_ ,” he says, laughing now. Keith scowls at him, hands shooting up to his head. Lance walks up to him, pulls his hands away to ruffle Keith’s hair. The bite of his smirk doesn’t reach his eyes, fondness burning in them as Keith backs out of his reach.

 

“Really, Lance?” He says, but it’s too late. Keith’s hair sticks up at several odd angles. They all take a beat to look at each other before bursting into laughter. Keith breathes out a sigh, and he can’t help but to join. Their laughter rings throughout the halls of the Castle, and the stress of today slowly seeps out of their bodies. They stop every so often, only to start again when their eyes meet. He’s not sure when it happens, but eventually Coran suggests an old Altean concoction he’d had in his youth. Well, whatever constitutes youth for Coran. Breathless, tears at the corners of their eyes, they all agree. They take the time to change out of their armor and meet back up in one of the unused spaces of the Castle. Keith is still pretty skeptical of the drinks, but grateful all the same. He sinks into one of the far couches in the lounge, letting the buzz wash over him. It weaves in and around the soreness that still lingers.

 

* * *

 

 

They’re drinking too much, probably. Keith watches as Lance strolls over to Pidge and Hunk, the pair chatting over something on Pidge’s tablet.

 

“Pidgeon! Do ya think we can hook up some Earth tunes? Coran _needs_ to be shown the light,” Lance says, a little too loudly while throwing an arm over her shoulders. Smiling, she slaps him off.

 

“Who do you think you’re dealing with, an amateur? Gimme two seconds,” she says, reaching out for his phone. Quickly, she hooks it up to the Castle’s loudspeakers. Immediately, a song Keith doesn’t recognize plays. Lance whoops, easily falling into the beat. He rolls his body, singing along. He pauses to take another sip before pulling a delighted Coran into the middle of the room.

 

“This Queen of yours is quite talented, Lance! Are all human queens so vocally endowed?” He says, and Lance laughs.

 

“ _Of course,_ Coran!” They dance for a bit, and the song ends. Lance walks away, opting to talk to Hunk again. Keith is content to watch, holding onto his drink. Suddenly, he lights up as Whitney Houston blares through the Castle. _I know this one, Dad used to play it for Mom_. _Laughing faces, clumsy feet but steady hands._

 

Lance grabs his first victim, Pidge, and twirls her across the floor. Hunk quickly moves furniture out of the way for them, most likely in an attempt to hide from Lance’s attention. Drunk as he is, Lance manages to sing along to the song while leading a half-resistant Pidge. And he sounds _good_ , too. Keith notices that Lance has relieved himself of his jacket, having rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He looks relaxed, at ease, beaming as he drags Pidge around the lounge. He’s pushed his hair back, longer now than how he’d worn it when they first joined Voltron. Keith jerks his eyes away, face warm. He shakes his head, exhales, looking around the room. His eyes meet Hunk’s, and he’s looking at him with a knowing grin, brows raised. Keith rolls his eyes, taking a pointed sip from his bright purple drink. He looks up, and Hunk is suddenly right there. Keith jolts, nearly spilling his drink.

 

“ _So_ ,” he starts, an old conversation that Keith’s more than familiar with.

 

“Hunk,” he says, warning. The alcohol sits warmly in his stomach, buzzing through his veins. Keith feels warm all over, on the cusp of admission.

 

“I’m _just_ saying-”

 

“I uh, didn't know he could sing. That’s all.”

 

“ _Sure,_ ” he says, skeptical. Blessedly, he drops it, giving him one last look before moving back to the other side of the room. Keith runs a hand through his hair, settles deeper into the couch.

 

Lance is relentless, belting now. Pidge frees herself from his grasp, plopping herself down on the couch next to Keith. They share a tired smile, and Keith lifts his cup up to her. She grins and shrugs. Keith’s eyes wander back to Lance, who, as a testament to his charm, manages to pry Shiro away from the wall. Appeasingly, he sets his drink down and allows Lance to lead him across the small space of the lounge. Something - anxiety, anticipation, whatever the hell he should call it - curls in his gut as he watches them dance. He should go now, turn in for the night. Shiro’s laughing at something Lance is saying, and this is his chance. He moves to leave, just a small lifting off of the couch, but that’s all it takes.

 

“ _Keith_!” He exclaims, releasing Shiro and striding towards him. Shiro retreats to Allura, and they launch into a conversation he can’t hear.

 

“ _Nope_ , Lance, I will no-,” he starts. Then Lance is there, his hands moving for Keith’s, and Keith is too slow. Dumbfounded, he finds himself being the one twirled around by Lance now. They’re close, maybe too close, and Lance is too loud. Their chests nearly touch, and Keith fears Lance can hear the beating of his heart. Lance’s hands are warm, one in Keith’s and the other on his waist. Distantly, Keith wonders if this song’s always been this long.

 

“ _Ohh, I wanna dance with somebody!_ ” He sings, spinning Keith out. Nerves roll under his skin, curl in his gut. His feet are slow and clumsy beneath him, but Lance isn’t deterred. Lance leads with a gentle urging, a press of his hands that stands as a stark difference to the insistence of his tenor. Despite himself, Keith begins to ease into it. He looks down at his feet, then back up at Lance’s eyes, a tentative smile on his face. “ _I_ _wanna feel the_ heat _with somebody!_ ” He pulls Keith back in, somehow even closer than before. Keith’s heart leaps to his throat, and he exhales sharply. Lance’s eyes meet his, different now than before. Something burns behind them, sparking in the space between them. He stares back at Lance, eyes blown wide, inhibition gone with the drinks he’d downed. A breathlessness takes him, unfamiliar, and he wonders how he must be looking at Lance right now. “ _Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody,”_ and in dizzying contrast to his belting moments before, he breathes, “ _With somebody who loves me._ ”

 

_Oh._

 

His heart’s still hammering even as Lance directs his gaze to a politely declining Allura. The song changes and Keith sits back down on the couch, grabbing his drink a little too tightly. He’s warm all over, and he wills his nerves to calm as he stares down into the liquid. Maybe, perhaps, Hunk was onto something.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading my fic!! I hope you enjoyed it!!


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